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There's a reason why Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander has spent week after week on the New York Times best seller list. It's full of fascinating insight about the mysteries of the mind, consciousness, and the inter-relationship of the physical and spiritual worlds.

The book is based on Dr. Alexander's out of body experience (OBE) while he lay in a coma in the intensive care unit in the hospital where he worked as a neurosurgeon. He was suffering from a rare form of bacterial meningitis from which recovery is rare. Miraculously, after seven days with no apparent brain activity, he recovers with a jolt, just as his caregivers are preparing to withdraw life support.

He returns with vivid memories of his experiences in a heavenly world characterized by a bright vivid landscape where he was guided by an angelic young woman and where he senses the higher powers of unconditional love. Unlike most other OBE experiences, he has no sense of his identity in the physical world and was not greeted by long lost family members. At least so he initially thinks. However, he later comes to understand that the angelic woman who guided him was a birth sister of whom he had not previously been aware.

Before his life-altering experience Dr. Alexander was skeptical about such OBE accounts, considering them merely a function of the dying brain. After it he was a changed man eager to record the awe-inspiring world and the presence of God to which he had been exposed. He now recognizes that, far from being an unimportant by-product of physical processes (as he had previously believed), "consciousness is not only very real it's actually more real than the rest of physical existence and most likely the basis of it all." His journey of understanding continues to the benefit of his readers.

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There's a reason why Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander has spent week after week on the New York Times best seller list. It's full of fascinating insight about the mysteries of the mind, consciousness, and the inter-relationship of the physical and spiritual worlds.

The book is based on Dr. Alexander's out of body experience (OBE) while he lay in a coma in the intensive care unit in the hospital where he worked as a neurosurgeon. He was suffering from a rare form of bacterial meningitis from which recovery is rare. Miraculously, after seven days with no apparent brain activity, he recovers with a jolt, just as his caregivers are preparing to withdraw life support.

He returns with vivid memories of his experiences in a heavenly world characterized by a bright vivid landscape where he was guided by an angelic young woman and where he senses the higher powers of unconditional love. Unlike most other OBE experiences, he has no sense of his identity in the physical world and was not greeted by long lost family members. At least so he initially thinks. However, he later comes to understand that the angelic woman who guided him was a birth sister of whom he had not previously been aware.

Before his life-altering experience Dr. Alexander was skeptical about such OBE accounts, considering them merely a function of the dying brain. After it he was a changed man eager to record the awe-inspiring world and the presence of God to which he had been exposed. He now recognizes that, far from being an unimportant by-product of physical processes (as he had previously believed), "consciousness is not only very real it's actually more real than the rest of physical existence and most likely the basis of it all." His journey of understanding continues to the benefit of his readers.

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This is a non-fiction book about Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and how a scientist and healer reconciled his pre NDE and post NDE lives. Dr. Alexander, a husband, father, and Academic Neurosurgeon suffered from a disease affecting 1 in 10 million adults which is almost always fatal. He was in a coma for seven days and miraculous came back from the beyond. What he experienced and learned is chronicled in this book from more of a scientific approach put as close to laymen's terms as possible. If you have a science and/or medical background it may be easy for you to understand. If not, Dr. Alexander does explain terms as he goes along.

I've never had a NDE and could not relate to that aspect of his story. I do have an open mind when it comes to the spiritual nature of our lives. It is hard for me to speak for someone who does not already believe in these things that this book would ultimately change their minds. However, if you are undecided and need a more scientific explanation of spiritual beliefs then this is the book for you.

Can science and spirituality co-exist my answer has always been yes. This book reinforces that to me. Check it out for yourself.

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I am a healthcare professional. This book was written by a neurosurgeon/agnostic. Changed his life. Made ME think long and hard. Great read, especially for healthcare professionals. This book has teeth for those of us that experience life and death on a daily basis.

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The details were sometimes difficult to get through because of the big words Dr. Alexander used. But overall this book was one of the greatest books I've ever read. I was drawn to the point of tears (especially towards the end) when he describes the way his family members reacted to his whole situation. The scariest thing to me is that no one was ever recorded in medical history to have had what he got. As I read I thought often, "I hope they will know what to do." There is always a first to everything and sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn't. I'm glad he survived and was able to write this book for the rest of the world to feel Heaven closer than they maybe had before. Everyone should have the chance to read this book and believe.

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‘Proof of Heaven’ by Eben Alexander is the story of an unusual journey of a scientist to the world that is not visible to our eyes, a journey that has changed his beliefs and made him start to believe that there is something that stands above physical world and human fates.

Dr. Eben Alexander who is skilled doctor in the field of neurosurgery had a common opinion shared by the doctors all around the world about near-death experiences – seeing those events as experiences similar to dreams when our brain put under great stress is playing tricks with us, creating fantasies that look and feel realistic.

Unfortunately the author suffered a severe health problem when his brain was attacked by not so common disease when the part of the brain that controls our emotions and thoughts stopped working and for a week he was in coma. Given that this was an extremely difficult case of brain disease for which there almost certainly no return to the previous state or the patient experience severe consequences afterwards, it was unlikely that he will wake up after so long time. So when his doctors were thinking about stopping his treatment, Alexander miraculously came back.

Although what happened to the author of this book is medical phenomenon, his story is even stranger and delves deeply into the meaning of life and human beliefs, regardless of whether you are a believer or agnostic as Dr. Alexander was before this experience.

‘Proof of Heaven’ is a difficult book to review, in same time not entering in the truthfulness of what the author wrote, because it is the experience of the person that is impossible to verify, and it should be taken as such, believing or not what is choice left for every reader to make. The phenomenon of near-death experiences is something that is well known and is often mentioned as a topic of many professional and less professional papers, and all those who had experienced such situations generally cite the same or similar motifs that are repeated through them.

Dr. Alexander speaks a lot about his career in trying to establish the impression of a strong doctoral credibility in order for his experience to gain even more power and even scientific credibility because it has changed his personal and scientific thinking. It cannot be denied that in terms of style this is a well-written book that will keep the reader’s interest though it might seem there is lot of evangelism in it, not only storytelling about his experience.In some parts the author is somewhat contradictory because on the one hand he emphasizes that it is impossible to describe afterlife and its inhabitants, and then trying to do it by introducing some motifs that are on the verge of children's fantasy and fairy tales.

Therefore it is difficult to make a general assessment of ‘Proof of Heaven’ and certainly it will depend on the belief of a person reading it. But certainly it is not surprising that the book was such a bestseller in the world as it is written in an interesting and easy to read manner by skilled author, which, even if you will not believe in his story the time you invested in reading will not be considered lost.